Legal

Cancellation & Charges Policy

Last updated: September 29, 2026

There are two separate kinds of money in a booking, and we keep them apart: our fee for the work we do, and, if it applies, the restaurant’s own cancellation fee, which we may pay to the restaurant on your behalf and recover at the same amount. Every charge is announced by email at the moment it is made.

1. Our fee — charged when you approve the table, non-refundable

1. The booking fee (¥6,000 per seat for a restaurant in our collection, ¥12,000 per seat for any other restaurant) and any concierge arranging fee you have agreed are charged to your registered card only after you approve, in writing, the table we have secured for you (see Terms §2.4). Before you approve, we send you the reservation as held — the house, the date and time, the course and its price, the restaurant’s own cancellation terms, and anything the house requires of you.
2. They are payment for work delivered — securing the table and arranging what you asked for — and are non-refundable once charged. They are not a penalty.
3. No approval, no fee. If we cannot secure a table, or you decline the table we found, nothing is charged.
4. If we or the restaurant cancel a confirmed booking, we refund our fee in full.

2. The restaurant’s cancellation fee — the restaurant’s policy, nothing added

1. If you cancel late or do not attend, the restaurant’s own cancellation policy applies. We do not set cancellation fees. Where a restaurant has its own cancellation policy, we send it to you in full before you approve the table and restate it in your Confirmation, so you decide with those terms in front of you.
2. Standard tiers (the reference for “stricter”):

   4 or more days before the seating	no cancellation charge
   2⁠–⁠3 days before	up to 50% of the estimated course total
   the day before, the same day, or a no-show	up to 100%

   Whatever the restaurant’s terms, they are put to you in writing before you approve the table; these tiers are only the reference for calling a policy “stricter”.
3. Where the restaurant charges a cancellation fee under that restaurant’s policy, SHOKU NOREN may pay that fee to the restaurant on your behalf and charge the same amount to your registered card to recover it. We add nothing to it, and it is not a fee for our service. Your receipt shows it on a separate line as a restaurant cancellation fee paid on your behalf.
4. If a cancellation is caused by us, we bear the fee.
5. Where a restaurant has no cancellation policy, there is no cancellation fee.
6. We email you before charging, and charge only after we have shown you the amount.

3. The course price — paid at the restaurant

The restaurant’s course price is settled directly with the house, usually on the evening. A few very high-demand houses require full course prepayment at Confirmation; where they do, we tell you before you approve the table, and any refund then follows that restaurant’s own schedule.

4. Concierge services

1. Concierge fees are charged to your card when the content of the service is agreed in writing and arrangement begins.
2. Made-to-order work — a private table briefing, advance menu and drink composition, a thank-you letter to the chef — is non-refundable once composition has begun. The way to a restaurant accompanies a confirmed booking free of charge and is not sold separately, so there is nothing to refund. Dining schedule design, an add-on to a Trip Pass, is covered by Section 6.
3. Goods — celebration items (flowers, dessert arrangements, keepsakes) — are non-refundable once purchased or ordered.
4. A food-culture docent (half day or full day) or a dining companion may be cancelled free of charge up to 7 days before the arranged day; 50% of the fee applies from 6 days before; 100% applies on the day before and the day itself.
5. A visit to the makers behind your table is charged only once the visit is confirmed; if we cannot arrange it, nothing is due. Once confirmed, the arrangement fee is non-refundable, and the site’s own fees follow that site’s terms, passed through at cost.
6. The on-call concierge is booked by the day. Each day may be cancelled with a full refund up to 8 days before; from 7 days before that day, it is non-refundable.
7. Any third-party provider’s own fee follows that provider’s cancellation terms, which we show you when we quote. Cancel early enough and there may be nothing to pay; cancel late and the provider’s charge applies — where we pay it on your behalf, we charge the same amount to your registered card, with nothing added.

5. Failed charges & exceptions

1. If a charge to your card fails, you agree to settle the outstanding amount by another method within 7 days of our notice.
2. If we or the restaurant cancel a confirmed reservation, you pay nothing and any amount already paid is refunded.
3. Documented emergencies (natural disaster, or a flight cancellation for same-day arrivals, with documentation) are reviewed case by case in good faith.

6. Requests and purchases before 22 September 2026

Requests we accepted and plans purchased before 22 September 2026 — including requests for restaurants outside our collection at the fee then in force, the former SHOKU NOREN Members plans and the former Trip Pass and dining schedule design — are completed, and any refund or charge handled, on the terms in force at the time they were accepted or purchased.